Oct. 2, 1853.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
277 
vernment of India finds adequately oovered by the 
degree of M. B. In a spirit of good nature, 
optimism and fancied economy, aoientifio ap- 
pointments of all sorts are bestowed by Go- 
vernment very generally upon gentlemen of the 
medical profession, who have shown themselves 
to possess a taste for research in any particular 
direction, quite apart from the question of previous 
special training. The result are doubtless in many 
oases praiseworthy and as satisfactory as they could 
possibly be under the circumstances ; but in the 
absence of any responsible scientific department who 
should supply the neceasary criticism. Government 
must often be at a loss to ascertain what it really 
gains or loses in scientific investigation by this 
method. 
It is largely as the result of suoh a policy, that 
we have in soieDtifio circles in India a pronounced 
aversion to all practical application of the services 
of ofiBoers thus engaged. The true amateur is 
always an enthusiast for pure theory for the xn 
of his pursuit: he considers his time, a9 the ex- 
poneot of a lofty abstraction, comparatively wasted 
iu exploiting the uses to which he and it might 
be harnessed; he would dwell in the pure ether 
of discovery and be content with the rewards of 
the Zoological, the Linorein, the Royal Microsco- 
pical Societies, who welcome him as one coming 
from <he Oriental unknown, with his hands full 
of shells and beetles. It is only the trained 
specialist who will admit that economic investigation 
is the executive side of science and of an importance 
entirely equal, or who will grant that the man 
who makes two blades of corn grow where one 
grew before, is at least as great a benefactor to 
his fellows as the man who introduces them to 
a new species of bacillus from which he is unable 
to protect them. But Government finds its sugges- 
^ tious in the direction of eoor.omic work met in 
a spirit of resistance. A certain amount of it is 
accomplished, by the exertion of force majeure, but 
it represents only a fractional part of what should 
be done, and might be done, with the right or- 
ganisation. Anyone who knows anything of the 
working of the Revenue end Agricultural Depart- 
ment is aware that it is like getting water from a 
stone to extract economic facts from the free and 
independ nt Indian scientist, who is practically 
allowed to prescribe his own orbit; while, if the 
request were for a paper on the stridulating 
capacity of the sea-anpmone, that same Indian 
scientist would sit up all night to make beautiful 
bis paragraphs. 
Without the slightest desire to decry scientific 
effort, which has for its single object to add another 
name, another description, to the world's perceived 
phenomena, it must be said that India is com- 
paratively speaking, as yet too poor to pay for 
it. Such work is the luxury of wealthy civilisations. 
America has very properly her Lick Observatory 
and England her Archioologieal Galleries. India's 
chief business is now, and will he for gei erations 
to sanitate her villages, to teach trades 10 her people, 
to increase the yield of her fields, to improve 
all means of communication and to defend her 
borders. Each one of these directions for activity 
presents its special and admitted claim upon an 
impoverished exchequer ; and in view of suoh 
paramount necessities it is not quite reasonable 
to tax the ryot for the price of original research 
among the coleoptera of Tibet, or a classification 
up to date of the fljri of Borneo, while 
his own interests remain where they were five 
hundred years ago, in bo far as any scient fio 
attention has been bestowed upon them. The coun- 
try needs all that science can do for it, but it shuuld 
have reooutse to euoh help with a sltiotly practi- 
cal aim in view. Nothing, however, can be achieved 
withou.t organisation, and organisation is incompati- 
ble with anything but the scientific service, re- 
cruited from among practical men and attached to 
the Revenue and Agricultural Department, which 
Dr. Voeleker recommends. That is only the initial 
step, but until it is taken we shall have what we have 
cow, chaos, and an indefinite assortment of beginn- 
ings, pk-as for grants in furtherance of this or 
that wcrlhy object of " more extended research," 
and an occasional echo of applause from the 
Asiatic Society. — Pioneer. 
« . 
AN INDUSTRY FOR INDIA, 
An account in a recent issue of the JVew Torh 
Sun of an American Bamboo Furniture Factory 
comes in time to emphasise the remarks of Captain 
Beauclerk at the recent Industrial Conference at 
Poona regarding the neglected industries of India. 
New York imports bamboos from China and India, 
as America has not so far produced canes of a 
kind suitable for the work. They arrive in sailing 
vessels at low freights, as they pack very closely, 
and by the aid of suitable tools and machines, 
and with high-priced labour, furniture and blinds 
(chicks) are made in the most thorough and artistic 
manner at prices that defy Chinese or Japanese 
competition. When we think of the very low price 
at which Chinese chicks may be bought in the 
Bombay bazaars, and the still lower price of the 
locally made article, we can realise how thorougli 
must be the system of the American workshops 
that can produce them at suoh a price. There are 
sixty varieties of bamboos known to manufacturers, 
and their joints vary in length from one inch to 
five feet apart. The colours range also from a 
very pale yellow through every shade of brown to 
black, giving a wide range of natural shades. A 
splitting machine is employed for preparing the 
wood splints that are used for the blinds and they 
are cut of uniform thickness and width from bam- 
boos that have been softened by steaming or hot 
water. A loom of simple construction is employed 
to weave the blinds, of which good hemp or cotton 
yarn forms the warp, and the splints the weft. There 
is room here for artistic effect by the introduction 
of dyed splints as in basket work. In the construc- 
tion of furniture the canes are bent or straightened 
by a steaming process that makes them almost as 
soft as leather, and when cooled and dried on 
moulds their shape is as permanent as that of the 
Austrian bentwood furniture now so well known. 
A hot iron, skilfully applied, provides all the 
necessary decorations on the surface of the cane 
which, with good workmanship and design, pro- 
viJes a great variety of househt IJ goods that are 
li^h^, cheap, and very durnble. The factories of 
Brooklyn produce ehicks, screens, fret-work, baskets, 
farcy boxes, pRrasols, chairs, tables, stools, flower- 
etands, flower- pots, eettees, hat racks, cabinets, buokett, 
bottles, easels, whatnots, &o., and the American 
bamboo industry produces goods to the value of 
800,000 dole, per Bnnum. There is so far iu Bombay 
DO banoboo industry worth the name. Matting that 
will last one seaeon is largely used as a pr aeotioa 
aguiust the rains, but no attempt is made to execute 
any permansrt work in bamboo on account of its 
very perishable nature. This is due to its use ia 
the green unseasoned state, aud to the habit of 
iniiscrimiuate cutting that ignores all rules and 
seiisons for the work. When out full of S4p njthiug 
but special treatment ia a cliemical bath or 
water seasoning will prevent them from being 
lit once attacked by the bamboo weevil •ud 
pjrforated in all direction^, for the augar aap 
of the wood. It is, therefore, nselesa to employ 
them iu am thing that has to last, so the bai-kt t- 
makers abou'; (hawfnrd Alarket, iind the chair luaktT. 
ill Fuia^ !{• 11 , wli se work is all of the very ponrest 
quality, reptceeut our bamboo industry at prtsent^ 
